Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Fri 9th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Test Driving DomainTools’ New iPhone App - The leading whois resource launches its iPhone app. DomainTools launched its iPhone (slash-ipod touch-slash-ipad) app this week. It’s a fairly simple app for now, but the company says it’s working to add lots of functionality in the near future. For now you get a few basic functions. First, of course, is the ability to do a whois lookup. The whois result includes hyperlinks on the email addresses (so you can email the owner) and the phone numbers (so you can ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Watch: Buzz Aldrin, Manny Ramirez, and Brazilian Finance Follies - Celebrities, parking woes, big companies, and more. Here are a few recent UDRP filings and decisions of note. BuzzAldrin.net – Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has picked up the domain name BuzzAldrin.net. He already owns BuzzAldrin.com, which he uses to promote his media products and iPhone and iPad apps. MyBT.com – This UDRP was just filed by British Telecom. I think the parked page is really going to hurt the respondent. First link: “BT Mobile Phones”. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Loses Big in Court on .Com Domains - Court of Appeals denies VeriSign’s motion, setting up a potential trial over the company’s .com monopoly. One year after a big legal setback, VeriSign has been setback again by the same court. Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied (pdf) VeriSign’s motion for a rehearing of its case with Coalition for ICANN Transparency, and the court amended the opinion it released last year on the matter. The background: Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) sued ... read more ...
Thu 8th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Defends Domain from New Debt Reduction Company - Chronology of registration “fatal” to complainant’s case. Marchex has successfully defended the domain name uFirst.com, which it acquired as part of the acquisition of Ultimate Search. The challenge was brought by a United First Financial, a company that claims it can help you “build wealth and eliminate debt simultaneously”. Some say the company is just a pyramid scheme. Regardless of the merits of United First Financial’s business, one thing’s for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Releases Domain Auction Catalog for NYC (Already) - Catalog issued well in advance with some big names. One of my (and others’) complaints about live domain name auctions is that the catalogs are released at the last minute. That hardly gives time for serious buyers to pull together the necessary money or approval to make big purchases. But Moniker just released the auction catalog for its August 18 auction at DOMAINfest NYC. That’s a refreshing change. The list of domains includes some of those big dollar domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7,000 WhyPark Domain Apps Installed in Just 2 Days - Domain Apps off to strong start. Just two days after WhyPark released its new Domain Apps, customers have installed 7,000 apps on their WhyPark domain names, WhyPark founder Craig Rowe told me this morning. That’s a strong start, but Rowe is working on ways to make it even easier to add the content-rich, interactive apps to domain names. “We have a bulk add feature to add apps to multiple sites,” he explained. “The next step is to map as many categories ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Auction Results: 30 .Us Domain Name Sell - US country code auction sells over $40,000 worth of domain names. [Updated: the official tally is 30 domains sold. I originally reported 29 domains sold.] Moniker’s .us domain name auction sold 29 30 of 86 domain names, or 35%. That’s a much stronger showing than recent online auctions held by the company. The key to success was a lot of good keyword domain names with low reserves. Having them at prices most people can afford helped, too. In total over $40,000 ... read more ...
Wed 7th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Closes $800,000 More Domain Sales - No big sales this week, but still a strong performance. Sedo rang up another $800,000 worth of domain name sales in the past week, although the domain broker didn’t turn in any six figure sales. The top sale was 363.com, which brought home $41,000. The second highest sale is notable, with docs.com.cn selling for $31,000. Here are the company’s reported $5,000+ sales for the week: .Com 363.com 41000 USD safetysupplies.com 29000 USD rnr.com 24712 USD stackit.com 15000 USD ecsi.com 13000 USD winportal.com 13000 EUR trouvaycauvin.com 10500 USD liked.com 10000 USD dietetique.com 7500 EUR hardwaretools.com 7100 USD r10.com 7000 EUR serialkiller.com 7000 USD thinkeco.com 7000 USD topart.com 6750 USD firstaidsupplies.com 6500 USD eheaven.com 6200 USD settlementservices.com 5900 USD artrite.com 5800 USD dotalert.com 5650 USD dasbesteodernichts.com 5625 USD remortgagedeals.com 5500 GBP stickerbooks.com 5400 USD lovebaby.com 5000 USD verito.com 5000 USD ìcon.com 4950 EUR ccTLDs docs.com.cn 31000 USD budgetair.in 20000 USD kopfhörer.de 6500 EUR tou.ch 5500 EUR tarta.se 5000 EUR logodesign.ca 4500 USD moebeltransporte.de 4400 EUR crazycasino.co.uk 3500 GBP Other boxing.net 15000 USD exe.org 8500 USD landlordinsurance.net 7000 USD dishtv.org 5000 USD drogist.net 5000 EUR ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC Universal and DONE! Fight Over What to Do With Women.com - Domain name losing value as lawsuit works its way through the courts. DONE! Ventures lawsuit against NBC Universal and General Electric Company has been moved from state court to U.S. District Court, and there the parties are fighting over what to do with the domain names pending trial. As background, DONE! sued NBC after a deal by the former to purchase Women.com and Women.net for $1 million fell through. DONE! is asking for NBC to follow through on the deal, which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SedoPro Event to Go on World Tour - Company takes its acclaimed Pro events on the road. Sedo is one of the most international companies in the domain name industry, so it’s fitting that the company will soon be taking its popular SedoPro events on a world tour. Until now, Sedo has organized annual SedoPro Partner Forums in luxurious locations alternating between the United States and Europe each year. Now regional events will be held on 4 continents and in 7 cities throughout the upcoming year. ... read more ...
 
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Fabulous to Launch Yexa Software for Managing Domain Business - Sister company to popular domain registrar offer domain reseller and registrar software. Dark Blue Sea, parent company of domain name registrar and parking company Fabulous, is getting ready to unveil Yexa this month. A brochure for the product describes it as “turnkey, friendly and affordable software to build and manage your domain and hosting business.” Yexa for Resellers will allow businesses to sell domain names, hosting, SSL certificates, and other products. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Sues NameJet, eNom, VeriSign, and Network Solutions - Lawsuit filed after expired domains sold on NameJet. John Zuccarini has filed a complaint (pdf) against NameJet, eNom, VeriSign, and Network Solutions in U.S. District Court over the transfer and auctioning of a number of his domain names. A number of Zuccarini’s domain names were transferred to a court-appointed receiver due to a judgment against Zuccarini in an anti-cybersquatting case. The receiver accidentally let some of the domain names expire, and the domain ... read more ...
Tue 6th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
I Had a Nightmare About New Top Level Domain Names - I need a real vacation. You’d think a holiday weekend would help me relax and forget about domain names. Apparently not. Last night I had a dream about new top level domain names. It went something like this… My phone started ringing in the middle of the night, and people were leaving nasty messages for me. “I went to your web site and it didn’t have the information. Thanks for wasting my time!” “Your web site is a scam!” “I’m going to report ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why New TLD Applicants Are Excited About .XXX - Hint: It has nothing to do with the actual TLD. Were you surprised to see so many new TLD applicants advocating for ICANN to approve .xxx at the ICANN meeting last month? Regardless of their thoughts on the top level domain name and the process, they had their reasons. I had caught wind of this a couple weeks ago, but Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines spells it out in explicit terms in a recent blog post: The Board’s decision to green-light .XXX means new ... read more ...
 
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WhyPark Officially Launches Domain Apps - Domain parking alternative releases major upgrade today. I’ve been excited about WhyPark’s Domain Apps since WhyPark founder Craig Rowe first started talking with me about them at Domainer Mardi Gras. He then gave me a sneak peek at TRAFFIC in Vancouver. Today they are available to install on your WhyPark domains. Domain Apps let you instantly ad relevant content modules/pages to your domain names, and some of them help you earn money, too. Want to pull in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Maximize Chances of Getting .Co Domains, and during Lowest Prices - Here’s how to maximize your chances of getting the .co domain names you want — without breaking the bank. .Co domain name registration will be open to the public July 20. But if you want to get a good domain name, you’ll need to pre-register the domains prior to the general release. On July 20 the registrars will be pinging the .co registry servers like mad in a bid to get domains that were pre-registered. Going at it by hand will be difficult. Each registrar ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Call to Action: An Important ICANN Comment Period - You should comment on this proposed new procedure for hijacked domain names. It’s rare that I ask the domain community to comment on a particular topic at ICANN. It’s even rarer that domain investors actually follow through. But there’s an important process going on to establish a mechanism to return hijacked domain names, and your input is needed. That a process to return stolen domain names is in the works is a good thing. We hear every day about stolen ... read more ...
Mon 5th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Understanding Defensiveness in a Domain Name Industry - Why are so many companies always in attack mode, and get defensive when criticized? It’s because they’re weak. In all my years in the domain name industry, I’ve discovered there are two distinct types of service providers. 1. Get very defensive whenever someone critiques their product and spend much of their time criticizing their competition. 2. Welcome all feedback and focus on improving their own products rather than criticizing the competition. Think ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Charter Communications Loses Claim for “Charter Business” - Company loses fight for domain name. Cable and communications giant Charter Communications has lost a dispute over the domain name CharterBusiness.com. The company claimed rights to the domain name based on a number of trademarks that were filed or first used in business after the domain name was registered, and that the parked page at CharterBusiness.com once showed a few links related to Charter Communications. The panel decided that “Charter Business” is a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Like Domains, Toll Free Numbers Going Through Expansion - Another toll free prefix will be released this fall. Top level domain names aren’t the only identifier resource being expanded in coming years. Later this year the first toll free number prefix since 2000 will be released: 855. The numbers will be released in October. Previous releases after 800 include 888 in 1996, 877 numbers in 1998 and 866 numbers in 2000. Similar to top level domain names, there are people both for and against the release of the numbers. ... read more ...
Sun 4th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.US Domain Name Auction Off to Strong Start - Moniker times auction with Independence Day, and it’s off to a great start. What better domain name topic to write about on July 4 than .us? Moniker’s .us domain name auction at SnapNames is off to a strong start with 11 of the 86 domain names already receiving bids. The auction runs through July 8. Compared to many recent Moniker auctions, this one would sell a higher percentage of domains even if it closed today. The main reason for the strong start is a good ... read more ...
Fri 2nd July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest NYC Should Draw a Big Crowd - Next month’s one day conference will be big; October’s will be even bigger. It’s technically only a one day event, but I suspect next month’s DOMAINfest Power Networking Day in New York City will draw a very sizable crowd. The event is being held right after Affiliate Summit, and both events are cross promoting each other. This, along with being in New York City, should result in big numbers. I caught up with Oversee.net Head of Marketing Aaron Kvitek yesterday ... read more ...
 
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Is Sex.com Really a World’s Most Valuable Domain Name? - Sex.com is worth a lot, but other domain names might be worth more. The headlines have been screaming about Sex.com the past 24 hours, saying that the world’s most valuable domain name is for sale. But is it? Is Sex.com the most valuable domain name (by the domain itself) in the year 2010? Ask me five or ten years ago and I’d say “of course”. But now things have changed. I’m not an expert on online adult entertainment. Michael Berkens knows quite a bit ... read more ...
 
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Absolut Vodka Getting Into a Escort Business? - Vodka purveyor gets AbsolutEscort.com domain name. Hey, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. But VS Vin Sprit AB, distributor of Absolut Vodka, just won a domain name arbitration case for AbsolutEscorts.com. Why else would they want this domain name other than to expand into another vice industry? Oh, I suppose it could have to do with this: The Complainant has not authorized the Respondent’s use of the mark in any way and would not license the mark for ... read more ...